RFABulous

This is very late in coming. Whoops.

During Physics Camp, we had a field trip to the Texas Instruments RFAB.

In accordance to my geekiness, I found it very fascinating. It’s a semiconductor manufacturing facility - the name itself doesn’t sound great, but we learned that once it’s ready for operation it will be producing chips.

But, not only that, the RFAB is one of the largest environmentally-friendly buildings in North Texas. The energy-saving features are very innovative.

My favourite part of the tour was when we were in the office area. The cubicle walls weren’t up, so it was a large stretch of empty room with many windows. First of all, the carpeting was made entirely up of removable squares of recycled materials. If something were spilled on the carpet, all that would need to be done is remove the affected squares and replace them, then send the dirties to the factory to be recycled once again.

Also, the light fixtures are motion-sensitive, so they would only turn on when movement is detected, then automatically shut off after a few minutes if it weren’t. The brightness of the light fixtures would be able to be controlled by the computer in the cubicle that would be under it, so the workers could control the lighting in their cubicle. Not only that, the light fixtures closer to the windows can detect the sunlight so they would adjust accordingly.

They even went so far as to consider geography. The sun rises and sets higher in the sky during the summer here than winter, and the office windows are positioned so that sun glare could easily be controlled.

During the entire length of the tour, I felt very…sterile. Everything was so clean and white, it was staggering. My friends and I discussed how totally badass it would be to live there. It smells like weed.

Anyway…a lot of the details are listed on the RFAB site. If you’re as fascinated by this stuff as I am, or for some reason you’re thinking about energy-saving alternatives in corporate locations, poke around the site. If you’re in the area, consider going for a tour while you can, because I’m sure such opportunities will be limited once it starts operating.